"It seems easily relatable yet really hard to explain," Murphy said. "Every time I get this question, I don't know what the hell to say. But it was kind of born from my relationships to other people and the people I love and stuff and how obsessive I can become about them and the negative consequences that end up coming from—I don't know—finding a new friend or falling in love or whatever."

Despite the usual pitfalls that come from being in a band and complications of that creative relationship, The Wombats made the new album work, even though the band members were in three separate countries during much of the writing process.

Murphy was in Los Angeles, drummer Dan Haggis was in London and bassist/keyboardist Tord Øverland Knudsen was in Oslo, Norway.

Murphy says the disparate settings are somewhat represented in the new album. The song "Lemon to a Knife Fight" was partially inspired by the David Lynch film Mulholland Drive and the actually Southern California road of the same name.

"It was interesting because the aesthetic for the song was born before the song was, I guess," he said.